In the first semifinal of the day, Elise Mertens was looking to follow in the footsteps of Alona Ostapenko and emerge as something of a direct descendant of Latvian Thunder ("Belgian Rumble?") on the slam stage, playing without fear as she challenges for -- and maybe even wins -- a major after having dealt with very little career trial and error in the effort. Just over a year ago, the 22-year old Waffle had to qualify just to reach the Hobart maid draw, and was involved in a somewhat comical "race to retirement" with Sachia Vickery in their 2nd Round match in the event as both tried to beat the other out the door so that she could enter AO qualifying in Melbourne. Vickery retired first (one game into the "match," after both had called for trainers), while Mertens went on to win the maiden singles title that she successfully defended just a few weeks ago right before heading off to make her belated AO debut.

Meanwhile, Caroline Wozniacki has seen and done it all. Well, everything except for win a major, as she's spent more time at #1 (67 weeks) and won more singles titles (27) than any other woman without ever having been crowned a slam champion. Over the past year, the Dane has worked to improve her forehand, serve and, as it would naturally go hand-in-hand, her in-match aggression. It's led to her claiming her biggest career title at last year's WTA Finals and a rise back to #2 in the rankings. But the pink elephant in the room was still there.

For much of the match, things went just as so many other big match-ups have at this AO. In other words, it was a lopsided affair. Mertens was a whisper of the player she'd been in recent rounds, while Wozniacki continued the wave of aggression and precision she's ridden since finding herself down 5-1 and 2 MP in the 3rd set vs. Jana Fett in the 2nd Round. She broke for a 3-1 lead, then went up 40/love on serve a game later. After being forced to save a BP, she finally held on her fifth GP with an ace. The Belgian staved off a SP in game #8, but Wozniacki easily served out the set at 6-3 one game later.

The Dane again jumped on top in the 2nd, breaking serve on a Mertens backhand error to lead 3-2. But Mertens managed to hold on, not giving Wozniacki another break and hoping for an opportunity to get back into the match. She'd done it while erasing a 5-0 set deficit against Dasha Gavrilova early in the tournament and, at this point, it was somewhat noteworthy to remember that Ostapenko had trailed Halep in last year's RG final by a set and 3-0, then was down 3-1 in the 3rd, before staging her big run. Though Wozniacki had lost just one point on serve in the 2nd set as she stepped to the baseline to serve out the match at 5-4, remarkably, Mertens *did* get that chance.

Up 30/love, Wozniacki missed a forehand down the line that would have given her triple MP. The moment completely shifted the momentum of the set. A double-fault made it 30/30, and Mertens' forehand pass got her a BP chance. Another Wozniacki DF made it 5-5. Suddenly, the Dane was backing off her shots, while Mertens was the one aggressively moving forward. The Belgian would reel off ten straight points and hold three SP of her own on Wozniacki's serve in game #12. But the Dane bring things back together in the nick of time, coming back from 15/40 down to hold on her third GP to force a TB.

With Wozniacki having pulled the set back from the edge, she pulled ahead in the breaker. Opening with a mini-break she jumped to a 3-0 lead and never dropped a point on serve, winning 7-2 to close out the 6-3/7-6(2) match to advance to her third career slam final, where she can finally silence a career's worth of whispers and shouts wrapped in negativity about what she *hasn't* yet accomplished rather than what she has.

The second semifinal pitted a pair of players undefeated in 2018. Combined, they were 24-0, with world #1 Simona Halep coming into the day at 10-0 and '16 AO champ Angelique Kerber at 10-0 (+ 4-0 in the Hopman Cup). Both had danced with the devil in the pale moon light at this slam, with Halep rolling her ankle early and saving three MP three rounds ago, while Kerber battled tooth and rusty nail to take down Hsieh Su-wei in the Round of 16.

It was a match-up to look forward to. One in which Kerber could move closer to recapturing her '16 glory right back where it all began, and where Halep could reach out and touch the moment that would finally end her career-long quest for ultimate slam success.

The pre-match assessment of this one was that it would be close. It'd eventually get there, but it was anything but that through the first five games.

Kerber was noticeably nervous in the 1st set, or at least slow to ignite. Halep jumped on the opportunity, running down and hitting everything while the German was, quite frankly, playing plainly awful. She committed six errors in the first eleven points, and lost nineteen of the first twenty-two as Halep raced to a 4-0 lead and led love/40 in game #5. She got the break to lead 5-0. But back-to-back DF to start game #6 caused a sudden change of fortune. Kerber's game finally found its footing, as she took the stand-on-the-baseline-and-whack-balls-back stance she had in previous rounds while routing the likes of Maria Sharapova and Madison Keys. She ran off a string of seven straight points and broke Halep at love in consecutive service games to close to 5-3. But Halep wasn't going to crumble. She steadied herself as Kerber served to try to make things even tighter, going up love/40 and finally securing the set at 6-3 on her second SP.

After going 3-22 after losing the 1st set in her disappointing "year after" campaign in '17, Kerber had won in all three such situations this season, including in her Round of 16 comeback win over Hsieh.

Halep had the chance to pull away from Kerber in the 2nd, but the German stubbornly prevented it from happening. The Romanian broke for 3-1 by winning a long, defensive-oriented rally. She held a GP for a 4-1 lead, but Kerber got the break to get back on serve. As Halep's irritation level grew, Kerber was firing herself up, holding for 3-3 to level the set.

Halep held at love to stay ahead 4-3, but failed to put away a pair of BP chances (one on a Kerber shot that clipped the baseline) that again might have given her a big enough lead to separate for good on the scoreboard. Kerber then raced to a drop shot and put away a winner to hold for 4-4. A game later, after fighting back from love/30 to hold GP, Halep dropped serve again, allowing Kerber to serve out the set at 6-4 and force things to a 3rd set.

And that was where we finally got the big match drama we've been waiting for.

Kerber took the lead for the first time in the match by breaking Halep to start the set, winning the first (this one had great defense on both sides, a drop shot and a lob, just for starters) of what would be many long rallies that seemed to take up the entire court in the 3rd. The loss of the game visibly angered Halep, who would find herself perturbed often throughout the set but, as has been the case this entire tournament, it didn't serve as a prelude to a stretch during which she might loss concentration or be accused of giving up. Instead, as she did vs. Destanee Aiava and Lauren Davis and all her other opponents in Melbourne, she settled down and went back to fighting. She broke back a game later, but once again flirted with squandering a lead in a big match.

Up love/30 on Kerber's serve in game #4, she missed on a a crosscourt shot and saw back-to-back forehand errors allow the German to hold for 2-2. She held from love/30 for a 4-3 lead soon after, and strung together seven straight points to lead love/40 a game later. Kerber flied a replay to a short court return of serve and Halep broke to go up 5-3 and serve for the match.

At 30/30, Kerber took a high bouncing ball and fired a forehand winner down to line to get a BP chance, which she won on a 26-shot rally when she crouched low and fired a backhand winner. Tired from the effort, the German went down to her knees after the shot, but she had the break to close to 5-4. A game later, a successful Halep line challenge gave her two MP at 15/40, but Kerber saved the first with a backhand winner, while Halep missed on a backhand on the second. Kerber held on her third GP to level the set at 5-5, then broke Halep to lead 6-5. At that point, she was 7-for-7 on BP chances.

After seeing Davis hold triple MP against her last week, Halep saw Kerber get to double MP in game #12. But the Romanian once again found a way to survive, saving her fourth and fifth MP of this AO, then winning yet another wild rally to break for 6-6.

After serving from behind in the Davis match that ultimately ended with a 15-13 final set score, Halep was serving first here. Going up 40/15, she fired an ace to hold for 7-6, then 8-7. With Kerber the more exhausted of the two, even after the crazy adventure that Halep had endured through her previous five matches, the Romanian was the more aggressive of the two down the stretch. She took a love/30 lead in game #16, only to fire two shots long on consecutive points. Twenty seven minutes after she'd held her two previous MP, Halep pounded a backhand crosscourt and Kerber's reply went long to give her MP #3. Kerber saved it, but a forehand down the line gave the Romanian a fourth attempt. Kerber's long shot put the final nail into the coffin lid of this one as Halep, in full Swarmette Warrior mode yet again, survived with a 6-3/4-6/9-7 victory to join Wozniacki as a three-time slam finalist. She fired 50 winners in the match.

Afterward, noting how she's not given up on a single point this whole event, Halep admitted that she's proud of herself. As she should be.

"I try to be very calm, but today was like a rollercoaster up and down. I didn't give up, not even a ball. I did it really well, and I'm really proud of myself actually."@Simona_Halep through to the final.#AusOpenpic.twitter.com/HGB8IP1QBa

With all the crazy happenings and upsets that have occurred at this AO, it's somehow both oddly and ironically fitting that the final will pit the world #1 vs. the world #2 in a slam final -- and for the first time anywhere on tour -- since the 2015 AO championship match between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. The winner will not only lift her maiden slam title, but will also be the #1-ranked player in the world on Monday.

Once Kerber had saved multiple MP in today's match, it was assured that the champion of this tournament would be crowned after being down MP in Melbourne. Wozniacki has faced two MP, while Halep has now faced a total of five in *two* different matches. If Halep wins, she'll have saved more MP en route to a slam title than any woman ever, as well as becoming the first to have done so after being down MP in multiple matches during the tournament.

No one said this stuff was easy, and both Wozniacki and Halep can more than attest to that. Over the past two weeks, this Australian Open has witnessed both women willfully triumph in their moments of truth.

One of them will do it one more time two days from now.

=DAY 11 NOTES=

...in mixed doubles, a day after defending champs Abigail Spears & Juan Sebastian Cabal lost to Timea Babos & Rohan Bopanna, the full semifinal field was set. Of the four duos, two contain players who'll face off in the women's doubles final, as well. Babos and Ekaterina Makarova (today w/ Bruno Soares she saved 3 MP in the semis) are still alive in both draws.

...the U.S. run of junior girls slam winners officially came to an end on Day 11, as the last Bannerette standing, Dalayna Hewitt, fell to unseeded Pastry Clara Burel. Another unseeded teen, Italy's Elisabetta Cocciaretto (on her 17th birthday) reached the semis with a win over #13 Daniela Vismane of Latvia, while #1 Wang Xinyu (CHN) and #2 Liang En-shuo (TPE) also won to reach the final four.

Wang & Liang are alive as a doubles duo, as well, reaching the girls final today along with Papua New Guinea's Violet Apisah & Switzerland's Lulu Sun.

...the budding wheelchair rivalry of #1 Yui Kamiji and #2 Diede de Groot is now set for two match-ups in Melbourne after both advanced to singles and doubles finals today. Kamiji defeated Sabine Ellerbrock 3 & 2, while de Groot took out Aniek van Koot 2 & 3 and they will now play each other in their second straight slam singles final. Kamiji defeated de Groot in last year's U.S. Open decider.

In doubles, #1 Kamiji & Marjolein Buis and #2 de Groot/van Koot reached the final with straights sets wins.

Hmmm, if only there was a sentiment you'd think people could have learned as early as in elementary school that might alleviate problems such as this. A simple standard that could be applied to many things that have a negative impact on society. Ummm, Gibbsy...

I suppose if sense and sensibility were as rampant as they *should* be certain people wouldn't get into messes by pushing conspiracy theories and racist and/or homophobic views in the first place, would they? Not to mention getting upset when people -- rather than being "unfair" to poor little them -- simply call them on their own hateful words and actions, no matter how much one professes how "Christian" they supposedly are.

I'm just sayin'.

Of course, certain people take their personal cues from their nation's so-called leaders, so...

2 Comments:

Picking the 3 time slam finalist to win. Oh.... Pick will be tomorrow.

Love all of the first time stats.

Errani got 2 months, Sharapova got 15. What will Cornet get?

Stat of the Day-2- The amount of times Dorte Ekner played the Australian Open.

Before Wozniacki, there was Ekner, who in 1973, became the first woman from Denmark to play the Australian Open in the Open Era. Her most famous there was her second. In 1978, she made it through qualies and reached the QF, losing to the eventual winner in Chris O'Neil.

A 7 time Fed Cup participant, she spent most of her career playing tournaments in her home country, playing the occasional WTA event.

As with Errani, I suspect her explanation for missing the tests will have at least some merit (she's already trying to get her side out there, too), though it'll be hard to beat the "tortellini defense." It's just a matter of how strictly to the letter they want regulations to be followed, no matter how unreasonable they might be. Hard to imagine she won't get at least a short suspension With no actual test to contend, could they "get away" with trying to suspend her for *longer* than Errani? I wouldn't put it past them.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with the FFT's Fed Cup team roster now, and whether Garcia gets dragged into that whole mess yet again.